Maximino Martinez Prado was 34 years old when he died on Wednesday, February 11, 2004, in Vernon, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 5728 Santa Fe Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and the Los Angeles Times lists it as a Huntington Park Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 34-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, Feb.
11, after being stabbed in Vernon." That short entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly all that has been made public about his death. The record places the death in Vernon but assigns the case to the police of neighboring Huntington Park, which suggests the stabbing may have happened near the line between the two cities, though the record does not explain the difference.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Maximino Martinez Prado has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
In many Spanish-speaking countries a person carries two surnames, the father's first and the mother's second, so he may have been known simply as Maximino Martinez in daily life. Searches for his full name turn up only unrelated records, among them streets in northern Spain and a court document from Colombia. None of them can be connected to the man who died on Santa Fe Avenue.
Vernon is one of the most unusual cities in Los Angeles County. It is almost entirely industrial, a grid of factories, warehouses, meatpacking plants and food processors, with only a handful of residents, and tens of thousands of people commute there each day to work. Santa Fe Avenue is one of the main north-south streets running through that industrial belt, lined with loading docks and rail spurs. Huntington Park, just to the south, is by contrast a dense residential city whose Pacific Boulevard shopping district draws crowds from across the area.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Maximino Martinez Prado could be found in news archives or public records. More than 21 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Maximino Martinez Prado, or who worked alongside a 34-year-old man by that name,, or who was on or near Santa Fe Avenue in Vernon or Huntington Park in February 2004, may hold information that could help investigators. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Huntington Park Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
